Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), for example, was quoted by the Associated Press saying, “It’s not appropriate behavior. Unless the reporter deserved it.” Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) denounced violence, but said “the left” has “precipitated this tense, confrontational approach” nationwide. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) went further, but even his concerns came with a caveat.

“I do not think this is acceptable behavior, but the choice will be made by the people of Montana,” Ryan said during a press conference in Washington.

That’s right, the people of Montana will decide if a violent criminal is allowed in the Republican caucus, because as far as Congressional Republicans are concerned, being a violent criminal is not disqualifying. As long as you’re violent toward a reporter, that is.

This guy is a hero. He gave this reporter what he deserved. What they all deserve. They are the enemy of the American People. Evil incarnate. They must be destroyed root and branch.

Anyone who smacks a scum-sucking reporter can’t be all bad. Hope he wins the election.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Republican, even thinks this is a good time to joke about shooting reporters. Apparently it’s not something that makes you lose Republican votes. Gianforte won the election.

I didn’t set out to write about nothing but fascism today; this is just how the news broke.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer not only made the fool’s mistake of comparing Assad to Hitler, Hitler came out ahead in that comparison. Because, said Spicer, even Hitler didn’t sink to using chemical weapons. Given a chance to fix that awful answer, Spicer said, and I am not making this up, that Hitler “was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.”

So German Jews were not Hitler’s “own people”? Or is it just the method of gassing people that makes the difference?

It’s technically true that Hitler’s methods were different from Assad’s, but “rounded them up into camps and then put them in gas chambers” is … not really better. Especially when Spicer’s way of saying this was “He brought them into the Holocaust Centers, I understand that, but … “

Let’s just take a moment to consider that word choice. Not concentration camps, not death camps, but “Holocaust Centers.”

Le Pen the Younger disclaims her father’s racist baggage, and presents herself as a populist/nationalist in the model of Nigel Farage and Donald Trump (themselves notorious racists, but of the sort who make recourse to dog whistles instead of out-and-out racism, at least some of the time).

On Sunday, Le Pen disclaimed French responsibility for the notorious “Vel d’Hiv” incident in which French police rounded up 13,000 Jews and crammed them into the Velodrome d’Hiver so that Nazi occupiers could deport them to Auschwitz, saying “”I think France isn’t responsible for the Vel d’Hiv…I think that, in general, if there are people responsible, it is those who were in power at the time.It is not France.”

The remarks came just a couple weeks before the French general election, which has many around the world nervous, given the recent success of other crypto-fascist “populists” around the world.

Under the Protecting Data at the Border Act, devices “belonging to or in the possession of a United States person” (a citizen or Green Card holder) could no longer be searched at the border without a warrant. Agents would no longer be able to deny US persons entry or exit on the basis of a refusal to allow such a search (but they could seize the equipment).

It doesn’t cover visitors or visa holders, but it does have bipartisan support in the Senate (Wyden D-OR; Paul R-KY) and the House (Polis D-CO; Farenthold R-TX).

This is what domestic terrorism looks like. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson ruled last week to block the latest Trump Muslim ban, citing “significant” evidence of “religious animus.” In a normal government, the administration would say they disagreed with the court and/or were disappointed in the ruling, perhaps say they would seek new legislation. But this is your new Republican government, and they’re not big fans of the separation of powers:

And just to review, the Republican Party officially stood behind Trump when he delegitimized the judicial branch of government. So why would anybody be surprised when the authoritarian followers start making death threats to judges? While U.S. Marshals guard Judge Watson around the clock, I’m sure other federal judges are getting the message loud and clear.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Yes. This is the “Make America Great Again” guy, after all. Trump has repeated “America First” like a mantra, a phrase is not just nationalistic on its face, but was the slogan of some of the most prominent anti-Semites who opposed U.S. entry into World War II.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – Yes. He tried to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. He wants to create a registry of Muslims, just like the Nazis did in the 1930s with Jews.

6. Controlled Mass Media – Yes. He wants to make it easier to sue the press into submission, and has a media enemies list, and literally used the Stalinist phrase “enemy of the people” to describe the press. It wouldn’t be accurate to say he controls the media, in the present tense, but his desire to do so is not a secret.

7. Obsession with National Security – Hell yes. Fear is central to Trump’s appeal. We are told to be afraid of immigrants, afraid of African Americans, afraid of Chinese. We are told that police are under attack. We are told in ominous tones that something is going on. He has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. murder rate is the highest it has been in 47 years, when the opposite is true.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Yes indeed. Trump has made no secret of his intention to prioritize Christian immigrants to the U.S. He has promised to lift the political restrictions on religious nonprofits, making it possible for churches to participate directly in political campaigns, with anonymous tax free money. He has promised to appoint antiabortion judges. He promised to get cashiers in stores to say “Merry Christmas.” He promised to bring back prayer in public schools.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Yes. Trump’s first pick for Secretary of Labor, Andrew Puzder, is a fast food CEO, with a long history of fighting against the $15 minimum wage, whose employees complain of wage theft and sexual harrassment. His current nominee, Alexander Acosta, refuses to say he’ll enforce current regulations that protect workers’ overtime pay. Trump has been overtly hostile to labor unions.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Yes. Trump favors the death penalty and asserts against the evidence that the death penalty deters crime. He thinks we have to give more power to police, including the power to stop and frisk people without suspicion, a practice already ruled unconstitutional in New York.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – To an unprecedented level, yes. Trump has refused to put his assets into a blind trust, so anyone wishing to curry favor with the President of the United States can literally give him money, by staying at a Trump hotel, or playing at a Trump golf club, or just buying one of his many properties, in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution. He will fill vacancies in the National Labor Relations Board, which will referee matters between Trump hotels and labor unions. He will fill vacancies in the General Services Administration, which will administer the lease of Trump International Hotel.

Perhaps this is why Trump has an actual sworn Nazi working for him as an adviser. Perhaps this is why the Nazi web site Daily Stormer celebrates Trump’s victory and calls him “our God Emperor.” Perhaps this is why the Ku Klux Klan’s official newspaper endorsed Trump. Perhaps this is why radical Serbian nationalists, who carried out actual genocide in the 1990s, support Trump.

“Fascist” isn’t a word that means “someone I don’t like.” It’s not a word to be thrown around lightly. It has a specific meaning. And if you’ve read this far, you can’t escape the conclusion: Donald Trump is, indeed, a fascist.

That’s Iowa Rep. Steve King, the prime architect of the party’s newly aggressive anti-immigrant stance, a position he obtained by scuttling post-2012 party efforts at reworking and moderating the party’s past immigration stances. He’s voicing these thoughts in support for Dutch white nationalist stain Geert Wilders.

Long a vocal proponent of extremist anti-immigrant policies, Iowa Rep. Steve King hasn’t wasted any time jumping on the anti-immigrant, white nationalist Trump bandwagon. Now he apparently wants to make sure America is crystal clear about his support for white nationalism throughout the rest of the world, as well.

Marine Le Pen is, for newcomers, the white nationalist leader of the extremist-right French political party National Front. Her father was himself a notorious anti-Semite and Holocaust denier; she herself is a Trumpesque figure who demands immigrants be stripped of jobs, welfare, school rights, and all other government services in favor of native citizens.